The relationship between business health and safety representatives and workplace union representatives and their employment security

This study examines the importance, rights, duties and obligations of the occupational health and safety employee representative, who persists in the international arena for a long time and which has different names and changes in the Turkish Labor Law legislation. It also includes the position of the trade union representative which substitutes the representative of the employee in accordance with the regulations in the Turkish Labor Law and refers to the assurance of an employee representative and workplace union representative from the job security perspective. The study focuses primarily on worker representative concept in international documents and in the legislation of the three selected countries. This section includes the evaluation of the general structure, rights, obligations and security of the employee representative in the documents rather than his work for occupational health and safety duties. Then, it is emphasized that the qualifications, referrals, rights and authorities of occupational health and safety employee representative and workplace union representative in the Turkish Labor Law Legislation, and the workplace trade union representative's work as an employee health and safety employee representative. Finally, there are references to the assurance of the employee health and safety representative and workplace union representatives use in the light of legislation and to the troubles in the legislation in this respect. As a result of the study, it has been concluded that significant changes have to be made with regard to occupational health and safety worker representation in Turkish Labor Law and it is momentously emphasized that the workplace union representative can not be equivalent to occupational health and safety employee representative and that special and effective assurance should be provided to the employee health and safety representative. Keywords: Occupational health and safety, employee representative, job security, workplace union representative, assurance, employee representative